Japan PM Shinzo Abe expresses 'profound grief' for WW2

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has expressed "profound grief" over his country's actions in World War Two.

In the statement marking 70 years since Japan's WW2 surrender, he said apologies made by previous governments were "unshakeable".

Abe pledged that Japan would "never wage a war again".

His speech has been closely watched by Asian countries, including South Korea and China, amid concerns he would play down Japan's wartime atrocities.

China and South Korea in particular suffered extensively under Japanese wartime occupation, and say Japan has never fully atoned for its actions.

Abe said that Japan had inflicted "immeasurable damage and suffering" on "innocent people" during the war.

He upheld apologies issued by past governments, but did not issue a new formal apology of his own.

"Japan has repeatedly expressed the feelings of deep remorse and heartfelt apology for its actions during the war," he said.

"Such position articulated by the previous cabinets will remain unshakeable into the future," the official translation of his remarks said.

However, Abe added that Japan's future generations should not "be predestined to apologise".

Abe is under pressure not only to avoid angering China and South Korea, important regional allies, but also to satisfy domestic nationalists who have grown uneasy with the repeated demands that they apologise for historic decisions.

In 1995, then Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama issued a landmark apology offering a "heartfelt apology" and expressing "deep remorse" for Japan's "colonial rule and aggression".

His sentiments were repeated 10 years later by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.

Abe's speech comes weeks after Japan's lower house approved changes to the constitution which would enable its forces to fight overseas for the first time since WW2.

 Abe has pushed for the changes, but polls show more than half of Japanese citizens oppose them.

World War II end dates confusion

 - Victory over Japan Day (VJ) marks the initial announcement of Japan's surrender.

 - It is also known as Victory in the Pacific Day (VP Day).

 - The announcement was made on 15 August in Japan, but - because of time zone differences - it was still 14 August in the US.

 - VJ Day is marked in Australia, New Zealand and the UK on 15 August - Japan also holds memorial events.

 - The US commemorates WW2's end on 2 September - the day when Japan signed the surrender document aboard the USS Missouri.

 - China this year will mark the anniversary on 3 September with a huge military parade on Beijing's Tiananmen Square, seen as part of China's campaign to highlight Japanese war atrocities.